"He doesn't have a plan"

With the passing weeks it seems to me that the #OleOut prophesies look more likely. We have a wealth of experience of what it looks like when a manager gets into that death spiral, and with injuries and probable transfer window failures conspiring to exacerbate inconsistent performances, you can kind of see in Solskjaer's eyes the reflection of a miniature version of himself circling around the toilet bowl. We'll see.

Either way, there's a common refrain that clueless Ole "doesn't have a plan, doesn't have a direction he wants to move in". Whether he fails or not, this is embarrassingly naïve. Every manager at this level, whether they are failures or successes, whether a genius tactician or Iain Dowie, will have very detailed tactical plans. The hard part of the job isn't having a vision. The hard part is implementing it. Because sport is merciless and you're competing against other people who have detailed plans and will ruthlessly exploit the marginal weaknesses in your own.

It has become a cliché but Mike Tyson's "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth" is worth bearing in mind. Solskjaer stepped into Old Trafford wanting to play dynamic, high-pressing attacking football. In retrospect, it seems to have worked for about ten matches thanks to the adrenaline of sheer relief that Mourinho had left. We didn't have the players or the fitness to sustain that. But the summer friendlies demonstrated this was still Solskjaer's aspiration.

We've been punched in the face many times this season. Setbacks and circumstances mess up aspirations. Injuries. Shortcomings in the squad. Mistakes by players and by the manager. The plan isn't showing signs of coming to fruition. Perhaps the strategy to enact it was flawed (too much reliance on youth; not enough investment in the summer); perhaps the execution has been poor (that's on Solskjaer). Perhaps this is a plan with a medium-term cadence, and always relied on a fair bit of luck (avoiding a lot of those punches to the mouth) if it had a chance of bearing fruit in the short term.

Anyway, this isn't a binary pro-/anti-Ole article. I would apply the same to our previous failed managers.

- Mourinho's plan was for something that looked much better than what we saw on the field. He wanted a muscular, tactically savvy team with lots of flair in attack along the lines of his other title winning sides. Perhaps the plan was outdated, but it's hard to argue that he failed to execute what he set out to do.

- LVG didn't want turgid possession football that failed to break teams down. He wanted to dominate games and add attacking penetration. Whatever you think of his philosophy, we should all agree that he failed to translate it onto the field.

- Even Moyes had a coherent plan. He was a keen student of the game. He had ideas that worked on paper. The fatal problem was that his players looked at him and didn't see a leader of Manchester United. You can't implement a plan without being in it.

Right, I've been going on way too long. Slightly lost what I was saying. Basically, try not to get punched in the face.